Coronavirus: Plans for Portugal-UK ‘air bridge’ going well
Portugal’s prime minister Antonio Costa has said that negotiations over an “air bridge” with the UK were still in progress and going well.
Speaking to foreign media, Costa said: “We are working towards an agreement and will wait for it to happen”.
If the measure is agreed, people in England will be able to travel to Portugal and back again without having to comply with the government’s 14-day quarantine plan.
However, Costa did not comment on when the air bridge might be put in place.
Tourism is crucial to Portugal’s economy, and authorities are taking steps to save at least some of the summer season after the devastation of the coronavirus pandemic.
The tourism sector accounts for nearly 15 per cent of Portugal’s GDP and was one of the main drivers of its recovery from the 2010-14 economic and debt crisis.
In 2019, more than 16m foreign tourists visited Portugal, almost 20 per cent of them from Britain.
A group of 500 UK travel and hospitality firms have said that they have had assurances from senior officials that air bridges will be in place to targeted locations by the end of June.
The blanket quarantine plan has been widely unpopular with businesses and politicians, with the UK’s largest airlines clubbing together to launch a legal challenge against it.
On Friday, British Airways, Easyjet and Ryanair submitted the claim, which calls for the scientific basis for the decision to be shared.
In a statement, the airlines called for the government to reinstate their old policy of only quarantining those passengers from high-risk countries.
Over the weekend, the transport select committee also released a report saying that the government should ease the blanket measures as soon as possible.
The government has confirmed that it is looking at the measures.